With fees in excess of £15,000 a year, Shore – as his former school is affectionately known – is regarded as one of Australia’s leading and most exclusive private schools.

The country’s former Prime Minister John Howard chose to educate his two sons there and other notable alumni include Australia’s former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Gorton and other leading figures from the worlds of business and politics.

Boasting a proud sporting tradition, Shore has an enviable reputation as one of Australia’s top rowing schools and Mr Oldfield was a leading crew member during his time there.

But despite initially taking full advantage of his privileged start in life, the ardent political campaigner now claims it was his experiences at the much celebrated school that ignited his long held opposition to elitism in society.

Now taking every opportunity to rail against the inequity of private education Mr Oldfield has rejected the opportunities his schooling afforded him.

But according to some of his contemporaries, his opinions were not always quite so radical.

One former class mate claimed he so right-wing as a teenager that he lodged a formal complained when a teacher showed students footage of Sydney’s gay and lesbian Mardi Gras march.

By the age of 17 however his values had clearly undergone something of a transformation and he left the school in favour of completing his studies at a liberal, vocational college called Bradfield.

At the time he claimed he disagreed with his Shore’s ethos of promoting personal and academic excellence.

He said: “I was suffocating at my old school because the teachers and parents were more interested in creating an image – but not my kind of image. The school was mass producing yuppies.”

He added: “I was fighting the system to retain my individuality. I used to study because I had to, but now I love learning. And the teachers would have to be the best in the State.”

He later studied at Sydney University before moving to the UK in 2001 where he enrolled at the London School of Economics completing an MSc in Contemporary Urbanism – examining the social and cultural impact of modern cities.

He still maintained a relationship with his family, having lived in the house owned by his father, Ross Oldfield, an engineer and multiple property owner, in Hornsby Heights in Sydney's north west.

Working for various urban renewal and environmental organisations, Mr Oldfield was involved in the Thames Strategy group which looked after a stretch of the river close to where the Boat Race takes place.

Former colleagues painted a picture of a man affected by family but who wanted to make a difference.

One said: “He came across as a very bright chap, highly intelligent with an academic air about him.

“I think there were difficulties in his life (once). There seemed to be something he was dealing that was hanging over him and overshadowed him.

“It might have something like a parent’s divorce, things that we are all liable to.”

He added: “He wasn’t the happiest of chaps when I knew him but it wasn’t the most important thing that I remember. But there wasn’t anything I can remember that would point to why he did it.

“It is a bit of a mystery why he said what he did. The whole thing doesn’t make sense.

“I worry he is going through some breakdown phase.”

He continued: “The incident yesterday did not really seem to me to correlate with the chap I knew. That chap I knew was professional, career driven and quite intellectual.”

Another former worker, who declined to be named, said he had been interested in helping underprivileged people since he first came to London.

“He wanted to see improvements in the local areas and he was keen to see people’s fortunes improve, that is what our projects were predominately about,” he said.

“That is what he wanted from the world.

“He was a hard worker, he certainly put in more hours than he was paid, that is for sure.”

Mr Oldfield eventually set up an arts charity called, This Is Not A Gateway, with his girlfriend Deepa Naik.

Funded partly by the Arts Council for England, the group holds annual festivals and claims to provide a platform for ideas and projects related to cities.

In 2009 the group received a grant of £4,650 from the Arts Council, but has since been turned down for funding.

But he is also a vocal campaigner against what he perceives as elitism in society, claiming his privileged start in life has given him the ideal understanding of why such things as private education are wrong.

Defending his actions at the Boat Race on Twitter yesterday, as thousands of angry protesters bombarded him with messages, Mr Oldfield said: “Having been deep within elite institutions I have a very good understanding of them. I protest their injustices – ask anyone that knows me.”

In another comment he posted: “75 per cent of judges, 70 per cent of finance directors, 45 per cent of top civil servants and 32 per cent of MPs have been privately educated. (Cabinet Office 2009).”

He added: “The advice has always been 'fight from within’. So I have – that includes LSE, RSA whatever. Was that bad advice I was given?”

There was no sign of Mr Oldfield last night at the £350,000 flat in East London he shares with his girlfriend.

The flat, in a 1930s building lies in a conservation area close to the internationally renowned Whitechapel Art Gallery and popular Spitalfields Market.